Weekday in AdventThought of the day from EWTN.com:
Don't give in to discouragement....... If you are discouraged it is a sign of pride because it shows you trust in your own powers. Never bother about people's opinions. Be obedient to truth. For with humble obedience, you will never be disturbed.
-- Blessed Mother Teresa
I was reading an article today which struck me with its initial statement that only 10% of Evangelical Christians are "“Biblically Literate" (http://www.alternet.org/story/44934/ ) . This surprised me, as the most common criticism which I encounter against the Catholic and Orthodox branches of Christianity is that members of my faith-group neglect the Holy Scriptures. It is often stated by Evangelical Protestants that Catholics are "“idolaters"” who "“add the traditions of men to the Holy writings of faith"” and that we are "“unfamiliar with the teachings of Christ as written in the Bible"”. It seems that once again, Fundamentalists are very hypocritical in their criticism of others. Upon closer reading of the article, I became even more upset when I realised that the very premise of the "“truth"” that this group is teaching is based upon theological absurdity.
Alexander Zaitchik writes that, "by fully embracing Truth, religious conservatives"” believe that they "“can '‘recapture Western Civilization'"’, which they "‘invented but have lost."’” This is most frightening when one considers the damage that has been done to individuals and the faith throughout history when individuals have sought to establish a theocracy (think of the persecution of Jews, Christians and other minorities under the Roman Empire -– or more recently the persecution that occurred in 1692 in the Massachusetts Colony by Christians against Christians). It is especially scary when this statement is made by people who claim to follow Christ'’s teachings (literally!) as espoused in Matt 22:15-22, John 18:33-38, and other locations where it is made perfectly clear that the Kingdom of God is not a human governmental enterprise.
Zaitchik goes on to state that for Evangelical Fundamentalists "..the questions that will ultimately lead to recapturing the flag of civilization is born-again boilerplate: Is absolute truth defined by the Bible? Did Jesus Christ live a sinless life? Is God the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe, and does He still rule it today? Is Satan real?".”
These questions, while couched in traditional Christian language, are exactly what a follower of Jesus Christ should not be asking. The first question that forms the basis of this "“born-again boilerplate"” statement would not even be possible for an Orthodox or Catholic Christian to conceive of - much less utter.
In the Orthodox and Catholic faith traditions, the question "“is absolute truth defined by the Bible"” would be either an absurd or ignorant thing to say. This is because of the definition or concept of "truth"” in Orthodox and Catholic theology (saying this would be like looking up the entry for "‘English"” in the dictionary instead of looking at the whole dictionary itself to gain an understanding of the English Language). We can read the Bible to learn about God, but we should not limit the definition of "“God" to what is revealed in its pages alone.
To begin with, let's start with a simple point of Theology: God is the absolute truth, all other truth is Revealed Truth. Only God is Absolute Truth.
The Bible is a revealed truth, and as such is subject to the culture and circumstances of the people who received the revelation. Revealed Truth is merely a communication from God about some element or aspect of Absolute Truth. This is where the concept of "“inspiration"” comes into play; the writers of the collection of books that we call the Bible were "“inspired"” to write about the revelation of truth as he or she experienced it directly from God, who is the Absolute Truth. Prophets and holy writers, who are human beings like the rest of us, are incapable of completely revealing the Absolute Truth (John 2124f).
Fundamentalism such as that of the group in the article confuses the importance of the circumstances during which GodÂ’s revelation(s) occurs and the importance of the message that is being revealed. Christian fundamentalists believe that one should replicate the social, political and religious conditions that existed at the time of the Bible. This is ignorant of the message of many of the prophets who spoke against the sociopolitical conditions of their time in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Instead of thinking of life in the ancient world in idealistic terms, one needs to look to cultural anthropology and archaeology of the Ancient Middle East to gain an understanding of the cultural milieu of the Bible. It also helps if those reading and studying the Bible remember that during the times of the Bible women were treated as sub-human, children were considered expendable until they were approximately 5 years of age (because they were likely to die of disease or injury during early childhood), slavery was an accepted social institution, there was little hope of climbing out of the poverty that was endemic for those who chose to eschew the Roman way of life in the name of Judaism, and there were exorbitant taxes to an oppressive, hostile government. A final thing to remember during Biblical study is that even religious life of the time was complicated by sectarian conflict over the Scriptures and how one should properly live out the Law of Torah (remember all the conflicts Jesus had with the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots and John'’s followers?).
Fundamentalists ignore that even within the Bible itself we can see that there are successive levels of revelation that occur. Christians believe that the Noachide Covenant was the first giving of the revealed truth of God to the human race. It was applicable to all children of Noah, or all of the entire human race, since all people are his descendants. Next came the covenants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These covenants are recognised by Jews, Christians and Muslims. Next came the supreme Covenant of Moses with God, which is the covenant which forms the basis of Judaism. It is not merely the Decalogue or Ten Commandments, but the entire 622 commandments of the Torah, as applied to daily life in communion with 'הוה. In later years, this covenant was expounded upon in the Mishneh and Talmudic writings. Some sects of modern Judaism believe that it is up to the persons of each generation to apply the Torah and teachings of the Rabbis to current issues. This is very similar to the belief in the Catholic and Orthodox faith which states that modern theological positions are to be derived from Holy Scripture interpreted through the insights of the Church Fathers and Tradition of the Faith. Finally, for Catholics and Orthodox believers came the ultimate Revealed Truth of Jesus' teachings. For Christians of the Orthodox and Catholic faith, we are able to learn directly what it means to be fully human and yet fully God from the life and actions of Jesus. We believe that "“God became man so that men can become God"”. In Jesus, we have the most complete revealing of Absolute Truth that is available to human beings. This is why we seek to follow Jesus in the way in which we live our lives; by following Jesus in thought, word and deed we are able to participate in that which is called Divinization by the theologians.
Another reason Orthodox and Catholic Christians would feel that the belief of the Christians in the article is simplistic is because of the way in which Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christians view creation and mysticism. Catholic and Orthodox believers would state that Natural Truth and Experienced Truth have to be included alongside Revealed Truth (Holy Scripture and Tradition) in the definition of God. Natural Truth is the truth of the world around us, while Experienced Truth is the truth of God that is revealed to us personally -it is what we experience in our own faith. These forms of revelation are necesarry for us to reach spiritual maturity - if we rely only on Revealed Truth, we will maintain a limited and childlike view of both God and the Universe. Unlike Revealed Truth and Tradition, which are handed down to us through scholarship from our faith's past, Natural Truth and Experienced Truth are meant to be participated in during our life.
In the writings of Christian Theologians, Natural Truth is often referred to as "“the Book of Nature"”. Because Orthodox and Catholic Christians see the natural order as being a revelation of the Absolute Truth itself, learning about this natural order and how it works is learning about God. Because the Universe derives its existence from the Absolute Truth of God (for He alone exists independently (– remember 'הוה literally means "“I exist"”) and cannot exist independently of God, it is absurd to speak of the "natural"’ and "“super-natural"” as most modern believers do. This terminology has rather recent origin and comes from faulty theology of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. (I will go more into that in another article...) but for now its enough to know that the Natural world, and the discipline most able to help us learn from it, Science, does not have to be inimical towards Religion and Theology.
Only faiths and practices that set themselves up against the Natural or Created order of God would experience conflict between these two fields; if one thinks that Nature is somehow disordered or evil, then it is easy to see the study of it as something to be feared and despised. However, as Catholics and Orthodox believers, we are able to have a proper relationship with Nature and God. We are able to have science and faith. (Or to put it bluntly like St. Thomas Aquinas, "only an ignorant fool would see a conflict between the two disciplines").
The very question that often is seen as the "basis" of a conflict between science and faith can be seen in the third question of the "boilerplate" theology: "“is God the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe, and does He still rule it today ?" This query is just as misguided to an Orthodox or Catholic believer as the first two questions are. "Does he still rule it today?"” smacks of the very imperialistic imagery and theistic limitations that make Fundamentalist Theologies so disordered and full of fear (for more on this subject, I reccomend reading: Bsp. Spong, John Shelby. A New Christianity for a New World. )
As Catholic and Orthodox Theologians have noted in books and articles, if Christianity is to continue being relevant to humanity, it must adapt to the shift in religious consciousness from a strictly theistic view of God as a vengeful, severe and religiously rigid person interested in only one particular tribe to that of a loving, forgiving, accepting God who shows to us the true Kingdom of God in the teachings and actions of Jesus of Nazareth. When we communicate with God, we need to be open to receive his Love and His Holy Spirit into our Lives. We must be willing to reach out beyond ourselves and our fears to those around us (Luke 10:25-37).
An area where we can easily apply this openness is to our prayer lives. When we pray, we need to express thanks for our life and the opportunity to experience all that we do.
Praying is not a time for believers to go through a litany of wants, needs, desires and grievances. It is not a Divinely ordained "bitch session". It is not a time for us to use "“holy language"” to grovel before the divine being as a means of building up our own importance in the eyes of others (Matt 6:5-18).
Praying with a litany of complaints and whining is the ultimate expression of an immature faith: it is the childish hope and expectation that God will "come down" as a "cosmic parent" and solve all our problems for us. This is absurd, as asking God to intervene in problems that we should take care of ourselves is expecting him to come down to our level when we should be moving toward his. It is an incredibly arrogant and ethnocentrist view that the Absolute Truth, the Ulitmate Reality, That Which Exists Independently, i.e. "God" has any interest or responsibility in our petty concerns! (Who the heck really prays that one team or another will win?) We should be praying to God so that we can have the inner strength and wisdom to conform our wills to his, not to have him bend the Universe to our petty wishes and desires. Most Christians need to learn from the Islamic example of prayer -– Muslims pray as instructed by Muhammad, not "“for things"” like most Christians.
It would be good for most believers (be they Catholic, Orthodox, or Fundamentalist) to incorporate this practice of "Christ-centered"” prayers into their own lives during this season of Advent. The next time you feel compelled to "“pray for"” something or someone, quietly contemplate how you could instead pray one of the prayers of Our Lord or Our Lady to be conformed to the Will of God (examples of this would be praying the Rosary, the Lord'’s Prayer or the Jesus Prayer). Doing this simple act will help us to find the Truth in Matthew 5:1 - 7:29. It is the Truth which is beyond all human understanding - and most importantly - is beyond all human fear, uncertainty, insecurity, ineptitude, division and tribalism... it is the Truth that Fundamentalists and Evangelicals long for, but are unable to experience because they have such a limited view of the world that they even limit the very God they worship fanatically.
